Sins of the Flesh: Responding to Sexual Disease in Early Modern Europe ed. by Kevin Siena (review)

REVIEWS 278 tion in relation to the object. Overall, the entries are detailed, although often repetitive. The catalogue is complemented by a thorough bibliography and a detailed index. Nevertheless, the true gem of this catalogue rests in the wonderful , high-quality color photos of every object displayed in the exhibition, in addition to many other supplemental illustrations, many of which are also in color. Set in Stone is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in medieval sculpture and the trials and tribulations that it has suffered. Furthermore, it advertises new scientific techniques available to medieval scholars, which are sure to assist in future research endeavors. LAUREN GRACE KILROY, Art History, UCLA Sins of the Flesh: Responding to Sexual Disease in Early Modern Europe, ed. Kevin Siena (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Publications 2005) 292 pp. The title Sins of the Flesh: Responding to Sexual Disease in Early Modern Europe suggests that the text examines a variety of sexually-transmitted diseases ; however, the focus throughout the book centers primarily on syphilis— particularly the social, medical, and moral implications of the disease in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The editor, Kevin Siena, appealing to a wide readership, compiles a series of essays to present an interdisciplinary perspective on the emergence of syphilis (or, as the text often calls it, the “French pox”) in Europe, thus rendering a modern understanding of an early modern experience of a sexual epidemic. Siena’s introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the “pox” by listing its various nomenclatures, symptoms, and emergence in western European society. The introduction also emphasizes the pervasive link between the venereal disease and moral condemnation throughout European history—an issue that almost all of the included essays explore. In addition to an overview of the history of syphilis in Europe, the introduction further describes the history of scholarship (specifically through the fields of humanities and science) on the disease and briefly summarizes the upcoming essays. Siena divides the ten essays into three sections: “Scientific and Medical Responses ,” “Literary and Metaphoric Responses,” and “Institutional and Policing Responses.” The initial section is by far the least accessible to a typical humanities scholar; yet, the assertions within it still deserve attention as they give a basic interpretation of the disease from a medical standpoint. The first essay in the first section, titled “Medical Responses to the ‘French Disease’ in Europe at the turn of the Sixteenth Century” by Jon Arrizabalaga, chronicles the history of medical theories on syphilis and its contagion. In terms of contagion theories, Arrizabalaga discusses older ideas—ideas once claiming that air, menstruation, and God spread the pox. He also discusses treatment and diagnosis of the illness up to 1500. In terms of the larger text, Siena situates Arrizabalaga ’s essay well; his work provides a contextualized overview of the medical issues surrounding the disease in its initial interactions with society. David Gentilcore’s “Charlatans, the Regulated Marketplace and the Treatment of Venereal Disease in Italy” is the second essay in the medical portion of Siena’s text. Gentilcore’s essay on quackery is loaded with medical jargon. However, the general message of the essay (which suggests that although REVIEWS 279 syphilitics in other parts of Europe had to search for treatment in secrecy, Italian syphilitics of the period had a variety of treatment options) proves worthwhile in that it carves a unique space for Italy in the early modern era of medicine . The third and final essay in this portion of Sins of the Flesh is “Joseph Grünpeck ’s Astrological Explanation of the French Disease” by Darin Hayton. Hayton ’s essay exposes the unfortunate tale of German physician and “political propagandist” Joseph Grünpeck who used astrological means to explain the spread of the pox. In a sad twist of fate, Grünpeck acquired the disease. Overall, while Hayton illustrates an interesting biographical picture of Grünpeck, the author succeeds more in revealing flaws in Grünpeck’s scholarship than in discussing syphilis in its broader social impact. The second section of the Siena’s text is comprised of four literary interpretations of the pox within the early modern era. The first essay in the section is “(Po)x...

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